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He gave a slight shrug and shifted the baby to his other shoulder, settling himself

"Aye Well, then Tell the Lieutenant I shall attend hi daunted, MacNair bowed and went off, presuentlemen on his list

"And what’s all that about?" I asked Ja strand of saliva fro a new tooth, are we?"

"I’ve plenty of teeth," Jamie assured me, "and so have you, so far as I can see As to what Hayes may ith me, I canna say for sure And I dinna mean to find out before I hed

"Oh, a certain flexibility in that word ‘convenient,’ is there?"

"I didna say it would be convenient for him," Jamie pointed out "Now, about your petticoat, Sassenach, and why you’re sca about the forest bare-arsed--Duncan, a charaid!" The wry look on his facehis way toward us through a swood

Duncan cla, the processleft ar water droplets fro, in a clean ruffled shirt and starched linen stock above his kilt, and a coat of scarlet broadcloth triold lace, the empty sleeve pinned up with a brooch I had never seen Duncan look so elegant, and said so

"Och, well," he said diffidently "Miss Jo did wish it" He shrugged off the co away dead needles and bits of bark that had adhered to his coat in the passage through the pines

"Brrr! A gruesome day, Mac Dubh, and no mistake" He looked up at the sky and shook his head "Happy the bride the sun shines on; happy the corpse the rain falls on"

"I do wonder just how delighted you can expect the average corpse to be," I said, "whatever the ical conditions But I’ardless," I added hastily, seeing a look of bewilderment spread itself across Duncan’s features "And you too, of course!"

"Ohaye," he said, a little uncertainly "Aye, of course I thank ye, ht perhaps Corporal MacNair was nippin’ at your heels," Jamie said "You’re no on your way to see Archie Hayes, are you?"

Duncan looked quite startled

"Hayes? No, ould the Lieutenant i’ h in September, aye? Here, Sassenach, take this wee squirrel away" Jamie interrupted himself to hand me Jemmy, who had decided to take ato cli loud grunting noises The sudden activity, however, was not Ja himself of the burden, as I discovered when I accepted Jerinned attheir conversation

"H cautiously "Finished, are you? No, I thought not" Je noise like s sufficiently to peek down his back

"Whoops," I said, and hastily unwound the blanket, just in ti you?"

Thrilled to have escaped his swaddling bands, Je a noxious yellowish substance to ooze fros of his diaper

"Pew," I said succinctly, and holding hith, headed off the path toward one of the tiny rivulets thatthat while I could perhaps do without such a and s like rubber pants with elasticated legs To say nothing of toilet rolls

I found a good spot on the edge of the little strea of dead leaves I knelt, laid out a fold of my cloak, and parked Jey clout off without bothering to unpin it

"Weee!" he said, sounding surprised as the cold air struck him He clenched his fat little buttocks and hunched like a small pink toad

"Ha," I told him "If you think a cold wind up the bum is bad, just wait" I scooped up a handful of damp yellon leaves, and cleaned hiled and squirh-pitched "Eeeeee" noises as I excavated his crevices

I flipped hier zone, administered a siurin

"Oh, you are a Hielandback

"And just what d’ye mean by that reainst a tree on the other side of the streamlet The bold colors of his dress tartan and white linen sark stood out bright against the faded autuh, made him look like some denizen of the wood, all bronze and auburn, with the wind stirring his hair so the free ends danced like the scarlet maple leaves above